Guild Wars 2

I only have two playability issues with the game as is that arise from being color blind. Firstly, the red/green nameplates for enemies/friendly, respectively, are very VERY hard to see in most, if not all, terrains. I know there is something there, but god forbid I am ever able to read the names or see the % on the bar. Especially a problem in big fights where I don’t have time to click and look at the main target plate at the top.

What I am asking is a way to scale up the size of these nameplates so people like me can actually see whats happening. Blue would be nice, but even blues are hard for me to see on certain backdrops, especially given the small size of the nameplates.

Related are enemies “AoE circles” that show up to warn of AoE. Now, I know these are supposed to be subtle and not super obvious, but they are often impossible for me to see at all. I don’t know how a change to this would help without making it too obvious for normal-visioned people, but it is a serious issue for me.

Thanks for reading, I hope these issues can be addressed.

Regards,

Troy

I fully agree with these options. Name plates (and health bars), especially enemy ones, are practically invisible to me. Likewise I don’t think I have ever seen any “red circles” on the ground. Fighting hard enemies in a party is mostly rolling of dice since I can never detect “bad stuff” to avoid it before it happens (so it depends on if bad stuff can be avoided after I take some damage or if it instakills).

This is especially made worse due to all spell effects combining into a glow that rivals a small sun (basically any 5+ fights have the main enemy completely obstructed in a bright glow).

It’s nice to have a mobile combat system with avoidance requirements, as long as you get a chance to actually avoid before you die. As primarily melee (guardian), usually I have no clue. In fact in larger encounters with many enemies I don’t even have a clue where the enemies are.

I’m not colorblind, but considering the amount of information that evolves around colors in Guild Wars 2, it’s a bit astounding that there are no support for it.

Hi Troy,

Like you, I am colourblind. I am somewhat amused as I did not even know that there were AoE circles for enemies; that suggests how difficult they are for people like us to see.

I agree wholeheartedly with everything you have said. In relations to option suggestions, I’d like to see a means of customising nameplate colours (or some colours in general) within the game. In other MMORPGs I have played, there has been a “colour blind” option button that increases the colour contracts for people with vision impairments. This might be an option for implementation that could allow people with colour deficiencies to be able to overcome the issues of colour contracts and visibility without impacting on the gaming experience of other players.

In high populated fights, I find myself spamming the Tab Key and waiting for my character to turn to the direction of the next enemy. I would like to see a different targeting system (as suggested in other forum posts) such as reticles/crosshairs (similar to those used in the elemental fight in the Thermanova Reactor in the Metrica Province.)

That’s my ten-cents-worth. I know that accessibility is usually low priority on games, but I hope that ArenaNet takes this into consideration.

Cheers
Jace (Pranachan)

In theory this should bug around 10% of the males playing the game.

I wasn’t even aware that there was an “out of range” indicator under the action bar buttons until it was mentioned in a chat window. Basically Red against any dark color is a horrible combination because it might as well be invisible.

I haven’t got far enough into the game to tell if there is a “Blue” vs “Purple” type problem that WoW had for many years. Some ability to configure the colors for the UI would be greatly appreciated.

I am not color-blind, but I fully support the o.p.‘s suggestions. The game interface should be fully functional for color-blind people through whatever means are simple and common-sense. (Scaling and/or color variation seem sensible.) I agree that the nameplates (especially for players) are often hard to see, and so are the AOE circles, and that is without having this person’s issues with identifying reds and greens. MMOs are a great way for people of all types and abilities to come together and socialize, and many big-time MMOs have taken pains to be accessible to people with various visual impairments. GW2 should follow suit on this issue.

I support this!

I’m not colorblind, but I agree with post 2, the skill effects and can be overwhelming and distracting. It’s sometimes hard to pinpoint your own target anyways since they have the tiniest bit of selection around them. In addition to a color change, an option to really have them outlined would help to keep track of them in large, out of control fights.

Yes. Please add color-blind mode for the people that need it!

Im not color blind but i also agree with this,its a shame they didnt think of this sooner,many people are colorblind but do want to play games,and playing it like this makes it pretty hard for them.

I fully agree. I’d love to see some options for those of us who are color blind.

Please add an outline to the targeting arrow and circle and let the player customize exactly which 2 color he/she wants to have for the filled and outline part. An outline would help a lot by separating the shape from the background more. This would also allow those who likes the current one to simply have the same colors for the filled and outline parts.

An outline color would also be appreciated for the ground circles since red on a green background makes it almost impossible to see for those of us with deuteranomaly.

Also, please consider adding a outline on the chat font. Depending on which zone you are in, it can sometimes be very difficult to read the text.

Letting us customize the colors in the options panel for various non-critical elements would probably be the best solution for everyone.

I sort of agree. Changing this mechanic for you would also change it for the rest of the not color blind people. Now, I’m not saying “sucks to be you” here, but what I’d suggest is an option to change different colors in the system.

For example, each different part of the HUD would have its own RGB slider bar. That way you can choose for yourself what color you can see best that’d make it noticeable, and also you’d not be changing how I see things.

Edit: At the risk of being banned I “could” go through the coding of the game and find a file that controls the HUD if its there, but changing that part could result in being flagged for botting/using 3rd party software and get me in hot water.

+ the gold/yellow coding in crafting. I usually have to call my wife when she’s at home lol

Agree with OP. When theres a couple enemies on screen, its really hard to tell which one i am targeting. That little triangle doesn’t stand out at all.

+1 for having the HUD have a couple different sliders for RGB and Alpha values. Also for sizes. Currently I only have enemy bars/names turned on, but only because I won’t be able to distinguish them from enemys well. I would like to see both, so I can attack or heal when appropriate. I would anticipate making the enemy bars larger, and a little more brighter. Also suggest maybe the use of an icon (with an enable/disable in the HUD options). Something to quickly identify friend/foe.

Im actually quite stunned that ANet is not more conscious of accessibility issues…especially one as common as colorblindness.

Personally, I think this should be a top concern.

I am not color blind, but I am supporting this.

The ability to customize colors in the game interface would help (ex. text, aoe marks, enemy highlights, etc).

Cheers!

I fully support this. Around 10% of the male and around 3.5% of the female population have partial color blindness at birth. While about 1% of each of gender is full on color blind, they see everything in gray scale.

Actually,even for people who arent colorblind it can be diff to see wich enemy you have targeted,I also rather set the bar colour myself,or atleast change the colour of the Bar above a enemy’s head when you have selected him.Going from red to Blue or Yellow for ex would make it a hell of alot easier to see who it is you have targeted.Sometimes its just a chaotic mess with all the spells and effects and clones and people teleporting and all the minions and pets around.

+1

I add my voice to this.

What about a hard Pink instead of Red? … it has a great contrast with almost all colors, and especially in a game that uses a lot of natural colors (greens, browns, blues (for water)) Pink would likely be very clear …

As for the green names on NPC’s and Allies, first thing that comes to mind is yellow, but it’s already used on ‘passive’ critters, white would be a good second, though here also it’s already in use. While i am unsure if it’s possible, but an outline in white around those green names would likely make a big difference, as it makes the green ‘pop-out’ of the backdrop.

Though perhaps a brighter green may also work (like as bright as the personal story indicator). The higher the contrast with possible backdrops the better they are to spot. Now a bright green isn’t as good as a border around them, but in most cases a brighter green will help.

Another thing that just popped in my mind is to have names with a ‘back-ground’-filler. Not realy sure how to describe this, but basically how the spoiler works on this forum. If the names all have such a black backing to them, then the contrast with the actual lettering (in both red & green) is hugely increased. If this is given the ‘brushstroke’ look it may even be very non-intrusive in regards to the game’s feel and artistic quality, while offering a good sollution to people that are colorblind (without making them feel like they are playing a game with color-blind fixes slammed on, aka. the brush stroke would feel natural in the whole of the game’s design).

Realy hope they do something about this, as it’s not to hard to fix these things with a lil thought put into it. And not that it has any merit, but i am not color blind, i do however have a bsc. in Industrial Design, and colorblindness is one of those things that ‘as a designer’ you have to take into account!

More contrast, larger UI helps. One thing that’s bugging me a lot right now is the frequent use of read on black. Examples:

- Enemy target health bar.
- Text when about to enter story instance at too low level.
- “out of range” marker (I didn’t realize this was there until today, and I have to look 2-3 inches from the screen to see them).
- “Ground targeted ability” circle around the number of abilities (likewise, just saw that today)

I can’t see any of these without being very close to the screen. In short, red on dark is a combination that is bad in any situation, not just color blindness. It’s one of those old web jokes where people made a crappy Geocities webpage using red text on a black background with blinking stars.

Also a major issue with being able to see what’s going on (other than the glaring white light from all abilities), is that name plates and health bars are actually hidden behind other monsters on the screen.

So if I have my pet in front of an ogre and I’m behind the ogre, I can’t see why pet’s health (why is there no pet health bar btw?). It’s not because of colors, it’s because it’s literally not visible.

For the most part, this game is awesome but the usability of the UI/combat HUD, especially (but not only) for color blind / lowered vision people (or worse, those that are both such as myself), isn’t up to par.

Hopefully devs take note and work to improve this.

I am protanope as well, and the main problem I have with the game right now is the enemy AoE circles. I can hardly see them, especially during boss fights, I’m long dead before I spot them (and though people keep screaming at me through TS/Skype, like “get out of that circle!!!”, it’s often too late ;-)

I can live with the dyes (although it would be cool to be able to sort them by color by default) and all the other stuff, but AoE circles are really annoying

ALL colour settings need to be made adjustable in the options. There is a huge percentage of the population affected, and there is no reason these days to not accommodate colour blindness.

This would be so easy to put in the game it’s a little ridiculous that it isn’t.

Grizledorf.5290:

I support this!

I also support our colorblind friends !

Not colorblind, but I am legally blind in one eye and my vision’s poor in the other. I support this! The out of range red bars and hidden pet plates are especially annoying. Red plates for enemies are also amazingly hard to see against some landscapes, and unlike GW1, we can’t pick the enemies out on our minimaps.

The bright combat lights are pretty bad, too. I don’t know how many times I’ve dodged off ledges I didn’t even know where there in WvWvW because the combat effects rendered me further blind.

Also for the love of god, please fix the difficult to read text in the trading post, I have to lean in so close to read it that my nose almost touches my screen. It’s horrible when I’m trying to list things in a hurry when I’m in a somewhat dangerous area. Like most of Orr.

They should put text based % and etc. Mini icon shape indicator if it is enemy or friendly.

I’ve got a couple of friends of mine who have bought the game but have also given up on playing it because of how hard it is to play when you’re colourblind. Was kinda bummed to hear Arenanet hadn’t thought of this any sooner.

Yeah, these kind of accessibility issues should be a high priority and should be addressed through user-options for the HUD and other graphics options, since there is never a one-size-fits-all solution for accessibility.

My significant other is colorblind and I occasionally end up “sorting” the visual cues in GW2 for him. Please add my (and his) voice to the call for a color-blind/more accessible mode for visual impairments.